1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for providing sanitary practices, in the preparation and the handling of food for human consumption. In particular, the invention is an apparatus providing sanitary storage, retention and use of serving utensils used at salad bars, buffet counters, and the like.
2. Prior Art
When food is served in a salad bar or in a buffet counter style, it is customary to provide one or more serving utensils, such as a serving spoon or salad tongs, for example, to use when transferring food from the service dish or pan of the salad bar or the buffet counter to the plate of the person helping himself from the food service. It is the usual practice to provide a serving utensil for each dish of food set out. When a serving utensil is used only on the food for which it is intended, contamination of the serving utensil by other foods is avoided. It is difficult, however, to keep the particular serving utensil at the intended food, since persons helping themselves to food from the service bar or counter, often tend to hold on to the serving utensil and use the same serving utensil for several foods in the service. This can result in contamination of the serving utensil by other foods and in contamination of food by other food. Using the same serving utensil on a plurality of different foods may rearrange the location of the serving utensils, causing several serving utensils to be left at one dish of food, for example, while other dishes of foods are left without serving utensils.
People tend to be impatient. If a serving utensil is not readily in appearance and/or readily available, persons taking food from dishes on the salad bar or buffet service tend to improvise, using other utensils and, more often than not, use their fingers to transfer food from the service dish, pan or container holding the food, to their plate. A person may drop a serving utensil on the floor and retrieve it, only to place the retrieved serving utensil back in the dish, pan or container holding the food. Though such practice is discouraged and frowned upon, it does occur. There is a need for providing serving utensils at a salad bar and/or buffet counter type food service which are highly visible, readily and easily available, usable within a limited, predetermined space, secure from falling on the floor when dropped, and easily removably for replacement.
Food served in a salad bar and/or in a buffet counter service, for example, is normally partially covered with a sneeze shield. A sneeze shield is a transparent sheet of material, such as clear glass or clear plastic, for example, spaced over the food, which protects the food from the forced exhale of a sneeze by a person adjacent the food served on the salad bar or buffet, for example. There is, however, a space between the food and the sneeze shield so that the person intent in taking food from the salad bar or buffet, may do so without interference from the sneeze shield. One aspect of the present invention makes use of the sneeze shield, used for protecting food served in salad bar and/or buffet counter style, in a manner and for a purpose not heretofore intended.